California’s top Republican ignored business plea to help Caltrain

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., smiles as he departs the chamber just after the GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted to eliminate key parts of President Barack Obama's health care law and to stop taxpayer funds from going to Planned Parenthood, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016. It is the 62nd vote House Republicans have cast to repeal or diminish the Affordable Care Act, but this is the first time their bill will end up on the president's desk. President Obama has said he will veto the legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

Business leaders at the Bay Area Council business group did their best at a recent fundraiser for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to persuade the Bakersfield Republican to get behind Caltrain electrification — but no dice.

McCarthy and the rest of the California GOP congressional delegation urged the Trump administration to delay a $647 million federal grant for the Caltrain upgrade as a way of targeting Gov. Jerry Brown’shigh-speed rail project, which would ride Caltrain’s rails from the South Bay to San Francisco. Last week, the administration went along with the delay. Caltrain says that could doom it to a future of slow, inefficient diesel trains.

At the Feb. 9 fundraiser for McCarthy at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Bay Area business heavyweights pointed out the economic pluses of converting Caltrain’s aging diesel fleet to faster electric trains.

“He said he supported electrification of Caltrain, but said the problem was that the $647 million was co-mingled with high-speed rail money and that the line would be used by high-speed rail,” said Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman.

Wunderman said the business group is still holding out hope that President Trump will include the Caltrain money in his upcoming budget.

Others, however, say the chances are slim.

“The president might put the money back in — maybe,” said Tom Nolan, a longtime member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board. “But I wouldn’t bet too much on that.”

Dan Richard, chairman of the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority, said that if McCarthy and the other 13 California House Republicans were out to kill bullet trains, they picked the wrong target.

“The business plan allows us to stop at San Jose,” Richard said. “If McCarthy is trying to blow us up, Caltrain was collateral damage.”

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